MICHAEL RICHARD CITRONELLE - WASHINGTON DC

MICHAEL RICHARD CITRONELLE

WASHINGTON DC

How do you spend $700 on a dinner for three? Well I will tell you and I am not proud of this. This is the stupidest mistake ever in my dining experiences. It is my fault completely, I should have not swallowed the bait fed to me by the Frommer's Guide. Frommer's boldly states that Michael Richard Citronelle is the city's best restaurant period. With this in mind I booked our table weeks in advance. My wife kept reminding me that she did not want to spend money on a fancy three hour meal. Time and time again she tried to talk me out of it. But no, I had to make the call and find out for myself if this was indeed the best restaurant in DC. We arrived early as the place was just filling up. The waiters here are well polished French type and from the time you sit down to the time you leave you feel like you don't belong. Our table was nice and situated near the glass enclosed wine cellar that is divided into two rooms. One for red wines an the other for whites and champagnes. Beautiful set up. We ordered Pasta with Butter Sauce for our daughter ($16) and then I boldly decided to try the Chef's Tasting Menu for the evening. Something like 9 courses. The cost......I really don't want to remember but here it is...$190 per person plus and additional $90 for the wine pairing. This means one meal was $190 and the other with wine was $280. I want to stop writing it makes me ill. The meal began with an appetizer of fresh crab stuffed into a egg shell. Nice presentation but crab is crab. Along side the egg shell was what looked like a piece of egg quartered. It was actually cheese made to look like an egg. The last thing on the plate was a chicken nugget. This was a fried piece of chicken. I kid you not. Next came a cold asparagus soup. It was absolutely perfect. There was some soft shell crab, halibut that were good also. Then came my favorite part of the meal. A mini lobster burger with potato chips served in a basket. For this course the waiter instructed us to use our hands. No forks required. The lobster burger was fantastic. This was followed with what the waiter called slow cooked short ribs that have cooked for 72 hours. He said that it would melt like butter in your mouth. Not true. You had to chew the thing and the flavor was no better than short ribs served here in Hawaii at many restaurants. There was a cheese course and all of the cheeses were really good.  The deserts included a Kit Kat type bar and a chocolate degustation that was o.k. One of the chocolates was covered in coco powder and terrible. The meal was good but not worth the incredible high price. The service was good. I especially liked the wine steward who politely explained the origin of each wine. The wine pairing was perfect. Every wine complimented the food. Probably the best pairing that I have ever had. My only complaint is the price. I won't make this mistake again. We will be eating left overs at home for months to pay for this one.

MICHEL RICHARD CITRONELLE IN WASHINGTON DC